Jame: "Every team should change its vision and destroy long-standing partnerships to improve"

Virtus.pro's captain had praise for dastan, but spoke about the need for change and the difficulties of enacting a style swap mid-season.

Dzhami "⁠Jame⁠" Ali and Virtus.pro have endured a tricky season, making three quarter-finals but exiting IEM Katowice at the play-in and the Major and IEM Dallas in groups.

Their big-money move for Denis "⁠electroNic⁠" Sharipov was an admission of a need to evolve from the style that had put Jame on the map. Dastan "⁠dastan⁠" Akbayev, Jame's coach for the last seven years, was removed in the crossfire.

But since then, without much time to practice, VP have not hit the ground running. It is only here, at BLAST Spring Final, that the benefits of the electroNic signing are rearing their head.

Read more

Stat Check: VP look for starpower and unpredictability from electroNic

"We haven’t had much time to progress," Jame said. "We are trying to cancel out the distance by improving individually."

And that worked: Virtus.pro took down Vitality on day one, and advanced to semi-finals with a comfortable win over Astralis in the arena. Now, Natus Vincere await.

Date	Matches
BLAST Premier Spring Final 2024
15/06/2024	Natus Vincere 21:10 Virtus.pro	Match

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Jame answered questions in Russian and his responses were translated by Russian-speaking HLTV staff.

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Semi-finals, first time in a while. How proud of the team are you?

It’s a strange tournament. It’s been three days since we arrived, but we are already in the semi-finals. It’s very intensive, the qualifier that we played for this event three or four months ago is long forgotten, and we don’t feel tired from being here. So yeah, it’s strange.

Tell me a bit about how your style is evolving with electroNic.

Of course, we haven’t had much time to progress, but we are working hard and trying to be strong in the moment. We are trying to cancel out the distance by improving individually to please our fans.

What about losing dastan? It was a long partnership.

Dastan worked with me for seven years, five with the organization. We appreciate him a lot, and the hate he received his whole career, trying to prove to everyone that he is one of the best - that should be appreciated. But in the end, time goes on, nothing is forever, and as for coaches, every team should change its vision and destroy long-standing partnerships to find new things that will help improve.

How has practice been going with electroNic? Are his ideas getting into the team now?

Sure, we lost some tournaments because we didn’t discuss everything and we didn’t show up individually when we tried to execute his ideas. But now, we execute the same ideas properly, win rounds — it’s natural. The more you work, the better you should play, unless you consider other factors like mood, synergy, and so on.

Something on Dust2, can it be a replacement for Overpass in being a great map for you?

They’ve been removing my best maps my entire career, it’s a bit strange. But when we won the Major, we played both Overpass and Dust2. We felt great about these maps and were ready to face any team there. It’s a good replacement, but I would prefer if they removed our weaker maps, the maps that the community and pros don’t like.

What do you make of the change from $800 to $600 bomb bonus? Does it help a team like yours?

Yes, it helps us a lot. We lacked some experience before electroNic and often lost those CT buys, got snowballed. Now it’s different, now we win those rounds more easily. Maybe things just got easier after electroNic joined.

Finally, what are your goals for the rest of the tournament?

[Editor's note: Jame thought we asked about his plans after the tournament.] I will go and see my parents, who live in a different city, then I will go to FL1T’s wedding, and then, if I get the visa, I will travel to Japan. It will be the first vacation in my career, so it should be interesting.